[unreadable] NIH-NIGMS support is requested to defray participant costs for a special Topical Conference entitled "Systems Biology and Metabolic Engineering," which will focus on the recent advances in bioinformatics, computational biology and functional genomics. This one-day conference (November 17, 2003) will be held in San Francisco, CA as part of the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). The requested support will be used for the travel expenses of 8 invited speakers and 4 graduate students. The speakers will be from both academia (8) and industry (2), with a diverse, interdisciplinary scientific background, who are leaders and innovators in the areas of Systems Biology, Metabolic Engineering, and Functional Genomics. [unreadable] [unreadable] The two main goals of the topical of the conference are to educate the chemical engineering community in the exciting developments and opportunities in the areas of systems functional genomics and systems biology, and to bring together chemical engineers with the genomic scientists, molecular biologists, and computational biologists who would have been highly unlikely to attend. This will promote interdisciplinary interactions and collaborations that will benefit the development of the field of systems biology and functional genomics. is will promote idea exchange and collaborations across disciplines. The two sessions of the topical conference are: "Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics I: Focus on Complex Biological and Biomedical Systems", and "Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics II: The Role of Metabolic Engineering in Disease Marker Identification". The conference will also provide 4 fellowships to graduate students for attending the conference. [unreadable] [unreadable]